The Depths Of Freedom
by Orange Memories
Summary: As Kohaku follows the path to the underworld, he tries to search for the one woman he loved. Rated M for an underage pairing.


Disclaimer: I got Inuyasha for Christmas, but Rumiko Takahashi wanted him back.

Warnings: A bit of underage Kohaku/ Kikyou here, so be warned. Also, spoilers for the recent manga chapters.

The Depths of Freedom

**XXXXX**

_Sesshoumaru- Sama, Rin has stopped breathing. Her body is cold….._

**XXXXX**

Death has always been described as beautiful. An opening of gates into the afterlife. For some, opulent, for some cursed. Yet it is always the next great adventure, after the monotony of a life less lived.

The man and the child walked over the lonely paths, defying darkness itself. Only a bleak arc of light gave them some much desired direction, burning like a black sun in an infinite sky. One walks on, treading over the paths with an easy, feral grace. His mind burns with only a single ambition, hope even, of bringing a child back.

The other boy slips and tumbles over the craggy rocks, the quixotic, chimerical landscape appealing to him. So this is what they call the fires of hell….

He is here to search for her, he knows that. It hasn't been long since their painful parting, but he will find her here, won't he? She is somewhere, hidden behind the veil that separates us from them. He searches for her image, hidden in the nebulous recesses of his mind.

Kohaku scans the bleak landscape, panting, running like a fool. He has to find her before he loses time.

**XXXXX**

He stokes the fire, and the red-hot embers fly near his face. He waits, for the gods of the night to lay down to blissful sleep, and the fiery Sun to ride his chariot across the day.

He guards her, like a precious ornament.

_We will fight against him. And you and your sister shall have your revenge. But remember, you are the key……_

Kohaku has never felt so free before. His memories are coming back, an amorphous haze of blood, death and pain. Kohaku knows death, for he has been on the Rubicon, and brought back. And he knows that she is helping him.

Kohaku's emotions are coming back. Memories can be stolen, twisted and replaced, but emotions are ingrained. Once they slip from the heart, even walking the most Herculean path will not get them back.

But her pure touch is making him feel again. The first emotion is anger, base and carnal. A scarlet rage consumes him. To be made a silly puppet, and destroy everything that is yours. But she calms him. _Remember, Naraku still controls you; you are bonded to him by a shard._

Then he feels icy guilt, cascading over his back, like the painfully cold water from a waterfall. It stings, not even remotely as his wounds do. He tries to forget, but his adamantine memories do not let him. He is sinking, back into excruciating abyss of anguish.

And then, fiery desire flows through his body. It dances in front of him, shy, surreal, but invigorating, all the same. He begins to revel in it. He feels like a predator, and she, his unsuspecting prey. Oh, what a shame! Guilt again makes his presence felt.

He delights in the dark pain that flits across her features from time to time. It intoxicates him, the thought of the pristine priestess and him being together. He is the darkness, she is the light. A perfect union of yin and yang.

Kohaku slides back into reality, as pain emanates from the shard and dances across his back, like the danse macabre of a thousand knives.

Ah, another emotion, coveted by some, hated by others, comes back to him. Primal fear. And he knows it is him again, in his mind and memory_. Don't you wish to have her, the_ _accursed priestess?_ Naraku laughs once again.

Kohaku watches her, the woman, and the raison d'etre for his life. Naraku words leap back and forth in his mind. He leans close to the sleeping woman, and all the worries of the world disappear.

Kohaku should never have fallen in love.

_You, my dark minion wanting her. Very interesting. Looks like you have truly become my alter ego….._

And then Kohaku knows that he will never be free. And the sweet emotion called love would always elude him.

**XXXXX**

Kohaku begs her, pleads her to take him with her. Wherever she steps, he will follow. Like a benign shadow. She forbids him to.

_You are destined for greater things._

She goes away, this time forever.

Kohaku feels lost. He realizes that he is bound to her, by his perfunctory emotions.

**XXXXX**

The winds of hell blew hot and cold as the stoic youkai carried a dead child back in his arms. His face was quiet, expressionless.

The young boy with him was in a state of frenzy. They had found Rin, but not her. And the stony, tedious path to their own world was opening again. He shall search for her here, and find her. Or stay in this damned place forever.

But the life-bestowing shard in his body, raves for a reunion with its siblings. Voices, past and present cloud his brain, making his heart burst with floods of guilt and pain. They were here too. His family.

He could stay here until the end of time.

But there is a power stronger than memories, than love, or guilt. It is the insanity of vengeance. He has to avenge them, and her. It is this very thing that will erase the pain. It will set him free.

" Come Kohaku.", Sesshoumaru says.

_And Kohaku blindly follows. Life never felt so sweet._


End file.
